1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an anti-intoxication preparation and, more particularly, to a compound position made of herbal extracts to be taken orally to overcome the unpleasantness inherent in excessive consumption of ethyl alcohol.
2. Brief Statement of the Prior Art
Certain herbal substances have been known in oriental countries, in particular China, for their beneficent properties in overcoming, or at least easing, the unpleasant side-effects resulting from excessive consumption of ethyl alcohol, C.sub.2 H.sub.5 OH. Foremost among them is a substance prepared from radix as well as flos puerariae, i.e., respectively, the root and the blossom of pueraria lobota, commonly known as kudzu, a leguminous vine. Indeed, documentation of its use in alcohol-related illness has been found as early as about 600 A.D. in the Chinese pharmacopoeia Beiji-Qianjin-Yaofang.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,516 discloses a Galenic composition said to increase, in vivo, the metabolic activity of alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, adjuvant or excipient therefor, including an extract of the pueraria flower, phaseoli radiati semen, pinelliae tuber and fructose in certain proportional ranges.
Keung and Vallee, in an article in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 90, pp. 10008-10012, November 1993, Biochemistry, have reported experiments they conducted with Syrian Golden hamsters, ascribing alcohol-suppressant effects of such herbal compositions to daidzin and daidzein, respectively a glycosylated isoflavone and a aglycone thereof. But they do not know whether these substances per se are the pharmacologically active molecules which directly suppress ethanol intake or whether they act as prodrugs converted in vivo to pharmacologically active species.
To date, none of the information available on the effects of kudzu vine extracts on alcohol consumption indicates any great success in combatting a significant social disease.